Turning the club into a title-challenging team took a while. Stade Dudelange and US Dudelange had been in Luxembourg's third tier (the1. Division), whilst Alliance Dudelange was struggling to remain in the second league (theDivision of Honour). The new club would take Alliance's place in the Division of Honour in the 1991–92 season.
F91 was promoted in its first season, and soon established itself as a competent top-flight team, not finishing outside the top half of the table until 1996–97. Towards the end of the 1990s, Dudelange gradually improved, and brought to an endJeunesse Esch's era of dominance by storming to the 1999–00 league title by eleven points.
In2004–05, Dudelange won the title and competed in theUEFA Champions League for the 2005–06 season. In the competition Dudelange became the first club in Luxembourg's history to reach the second qualifying round, after a remarkable victory overNK Zrinjski (they lost 0–1 at home in the first leg, in the second leg they scored a goal in the 3rd minute ofstoppage time to equalize on aggregate, and then scored 3 more goals in extra time). However, Dudelange were easily beaten byRapid Wien in the second qualifying round.
In the2005–06 season, Dudelange completed theleague andcupDouble for the first time since the merger. They replicated this feat in the2006–07 season, and won a fourth consecutive National Division title in2007–08.
In the2012–13 UEFA Champions League, F91 Dudelange defeatedTre Penne 11–0 on aggregate, earning them an appointment with Austrian championRed Bull Salzburg in the second round. They defeated Salzburg 1–0 in Luxemburg, and lost 3–4 in Salzburg, to win the tie on the away goal rule. For the first time in club history, Dudelange qualified for the third round of the competition, in which they were beaten 5–1 on aggregate byMaribor.
In 2018, F91 Dudelange became the first Luxembourgish team to reach the group stage of a major European competition, after defeatingCFR Cluj 5–2 on aggregate in theUEFA Europa League play-off round.[6] Due to Dudelange's apparentunderdog status, daily newspaperGazeta Sporturilor regarded CFR's elimination as "the biggest shame in the history of Romanian football".[7] Dudelange had also previously defeated Polish sideLegia Warsaw in the third qualifying round. The men from the Grand Duchy were drawn into a 'Group of Death', containing European powerhousesAC Milan,Olympiacos and Spanish sideReal Betis. The Luxembourgers did, however, managed to pick up a famous and hard-fought point, on the last matchday, when they drew 0–0 against Real Betis at theStade Josy Barthel.[citation needed]
In 2019, Dudelange qualified for theEuropa Leaguegroup stages for the second successive season after defeatingFC Ararat-Armenia in the play-off round in a penalty shootout.
Dudelange fared much better in their second European group stage adventure, being drawn into a group withEuropa League stalwartsSevilla, Cypriot championsAPOEL andQarabağ of Azerbaijan.
On the first group stage matchday, on 19 September 2019, Dudelange became the first ever team from Luxembourg to win a game in a European group stage after beatingAPOEL 4–3 inNicosia. Dudelange, whose coach Emilio Ferrera had resigned only two days prior, came back from a 3–2 deficit to defeat the Cypriots.[8]
After losing their next four group matches, Dudelange faced Qarabag on the last matchday inBaku where they came within two minutes of recording another famous win, before the Azeri side equalised in injury time, thus the men from Luxembourg finished bottom of the group with a respectable 4 points.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.